Brunching our way to weekend.

December 7, 2012

Lately, we have been joining the rest of the Dubai community in their Friday brunch since the weather is much more friendlier now to drink as early as 12nn without having to deal with the scorching heat right after you get drunk. It’s that one day in Dubai when almost every single restaurants are having at least 3 hours of an eat and drink all you can theme, of course for a fee. The package which includes alcohol is always more expensive than the non-alcoholic one, obviously. And because we’re all alcoholics we always opt for the former.

Two weeks ago, we were at The Terrace in Media Rotana to use the voucher we’ve purchased from Cobone. One word: TERRIBLE! It wasn’t my first time to have a Friday brunch there as we were there last April to make use of a free voucher that I’ve won. It was a-MAH-zing during that time but this time, it was just downright horrible. Why? Well to start off, the service standards just became really lousy including that of the manager. I think we’ve approached the manager at least three times for the whole duration of that brunch for different reasons but we never got any response or action from him. I remember once we kindly followed up on the round of drinks that we’ve ordered 45 minutes ago and he acknowledged this request but went on chatting with his friends or I don’t know, maybe fellow colleagues? They were all standing right in front of the bar just chatting away. With that kind of service from their manager, what more can you expect? On the other hand though, most of the staff are nice but probably just lacks the experience to handle such huge number of diners all at the same time. Second, all of the food they have are cold. Dead cold. Even the grilled ones. I think they should put a burner underneath all of their casseroles to keep the food warm. Third, there’s just too many flies which of course isn’t really the fault of the restaurant itself but it really ruined the mood for us. But hey! We’re sitting outside and flies are inevitable so I guess we just have to suck it up. 🙂 However, I am never going back there for brunch even if it’s for free. I do love The Terrace though as a normal place to go have a drink.

Earlier this afternoon, we were at Gozo Garden Restaurant at the Millennium Airport Hotel. Now this was amazing, I can say that to you right now and hopefully it won’t lose it’s luster 8 months from now like that of The Terrace. They’ve got seafood (a huge pile of it in the center of the room) which you can ask to be grilled if you wish, they’ve got a sushi bar, salad bar and they even serve pork. I actually didn’t care much about the rest except for the seafood. They are also very accommodating with the guest’s requests – my friend asked for a garlic and butter sauce for the seafood and they did it for him. The only downside is, they have a limit of 8 beverages per person for AED200 which is still very cheap compared to the other brunch offered in other places. That is unless of course if you drink more than 8 alcoholic drinks in 4 hours, which luckily doesn’t apply to me.

YUM!

Next time, we’ll probably go to Jumeirah Beach Hotel. I heard they’ve got a good brunch there as well.